Posted on 10/19/2017 3:50:09 AM PDT by markomalley
A Hawaii-based destroyer’s upcoming deployment to the 7th Fleet will last longer than planned because of a ship shortage caused by deadly collisions and maintenance issues.
The USS O’Kane, which belongs to the San Diego-based 3rd Fleet, was previously scheduled to deploy to the Western Pacific but will stay in the area longer to provide additional support to the fleet, 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Paul Newell told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday.
“[O’Kane] will extend their time here to help sustain the naval presence in 7th Fleet and provide uninterrupted mission support following the recent collisions involving USS Fitzgerald and USS John S. McCain,” he said.
The McCain and Fitzgerald collisions, which killed a total of 17 sailors, were part of a slew of accidents involving U.S. warships in the region this year.
In January, the USS Antietam ran aground and spilled roughly 1,100 gallons of hydraulic fluid into Tokyo Bay; in June, a collision between the Fitzgerald and a merchant ship killed seven sailors; and in August, a collision between the McCain and an oil tanker killed 10 sailors.
Maintenance issues also have taken a toll on 7th Fleet’s ship inventory. In July, Navy officials announced that the destroyer USS Milius’ forward deployment to Japan had been pushed to 2018 despite a need for additional ships in the busy Asia-Pacific region. Naval Surface Forces delayed the Milius’ arrival to complete its maintenance and modernization.
“I am concerned about the number of ships that we have out here,” Pacific Fleet Commander Adm. Scott Swift said in an interview with Stars and Stripes on June 26, prior to the McCain collision. “Milius was coming out to help get us down to the [operations] tempo that we can really sustain. We’ve got such an incredible amount of work out here that I need Milius plus another ship.”
Navy officials also announced last month that unexpected engineering problems will keep the USS Blue Ridge, the 7th Fleet’s flagship, in dry dock through early next year — months past its scheduled completion date of August 2017.
....he was and still is a threat to the overall health
and well being of this country
We will pay dearly for the Kenyan’s reign for years to come and it very well may get much worse.
Obama is responsible for many things, but this fiasco is all on the Navy. Senior officers all up the chain of command knowingly sent ships to sea with criminally untrained crews. Mid-level officers provided inadequate training for their people, except in those all-important “social” areas - because those were the areas in which they could lose their commands - whereas gaps in topics like seamanship were covered by a “Risk Mitigation Plan”.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.